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Word Meaning and Belief (Routledge Library Editions: Semantics and Semiology)
by S.G. PulmanFirst published in 1983, the aim of this book is to diagnose linguists’ failure to advance satisfactory theories of lexical meaning, then to propose the requirements that such a theory should meet and, drawing on work in philosophy and psychology, to take the first steps towards satisfying these requirements. It begins by discussing the work of Quine on the indeterminacy of translation and it is shown that attempts by linguists to answer Quine’s arguments by proposing universal ‘semantic primitives’ or their equivalents is unsatisfactory. The relation between the theory of word meaning and the theory of categorisation is explored, and an alternative to Rosch’s ‘family resemblance’ account of the ‘prototype’ effect in both nouns and verbs is provided. The author argues that identification of certain implicit categories like ‘action’ and ‘event’ can be related to principles of individuation, and builds on the work of Kripke and Putnam on proper names and natural kind terms. This book will be of interest to students of linguistics and the philosophy of language.
Word Meaning and Belief (Routledge Library Editions: Semantics and Semiology)
by S.G. PulmanFirst published in 1983, the aim of this book is to diagnose linguists’ failure to advance satisfactory theories of lexical meaning, then to propose the requirements that such a theory should meet and, drawing on work in philosophy and psychology, to take the first steps towards satisfying these requirements. It begins by discussing the work of Quine on the indeterminacy of translation and it is shown that attempts by linguists to answer Quine’s arguments by proposing universal ‘semantic primitives’ or their equivalents is unsatisfactory. The relation between the theory of word meaning and the theory of categorisation is explored, and an alternative to Rosch’s ‘family resemblance’ account of the ‘prototype’ effect in both nouns and verbs is provided. The author argues that identification of certain implicit categories like ‘action’ and ‘event’ can be related to principles of individuation, and builds on the work of Kripke and Putnam on proper names and natural kind terms. This book will be of interest to students of linguistics and the philosophy of language.
Word Meaning and Montague Grammar: The Semantics of Verbs and Times in Generative Semantics and in Montague's PTQ (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy #7)
by D. R. DowtyThe most general goal of this book is to propose and illustrate a program of research in word semantics that combines some of the methodology and results in linguistic semantics, primarily that of the generative semantics school, with the rigorously formalized syntactic and semantic framework for the analysis of natural languages developed by Richard Montague and his associates, a framework in which truth and denotation with respect to a model are taken as the fundamental semantic notions. I hope to show, both from the linguist's and the philosopher's point of view, not only why this synthesis can be undertaken but also why it will be useful to pursue it. On the one hand, the linguists' decompositions of word meanings into more primitive parts are by themselves inherently incomplete, in that they deal only in distinctions in meaning without providing an account of what mean ings really are. Not only can these analyses be made complete by a model theoretic semantics, but also such an account of these analyses renders them more exact and more readily testable than they could ever be otherwise.
Word vs Image: Cognitive Hunger in Shakespeare’s England
by E. SpolskyArguing on recent cognitive evidence that reading a Bible is much more difficult for human brains than seeing images, this book exposes the depth and breadth of Protestant theologians' misunderstandings about how people could reform their spiritual lives - how they could literally change their minds.
Words and Distinctions for the Common Good: Practical Reason in the Logic of Social Science
by Gabriel AbendHow social scientists' disagreements about their key words and distinctions have been misconceived, and what to do about itSocial scientists do research on a variety of topics—gender, capitalism, populism, and race and ethnicity, among others. They make descriptive and explanatory claims about empathy, intelligence, neoliberalism, and power. They advise policymakers on diversity, digitalization, work, and religion. And yet, as Gabriel Abend points out in this provocative book, they can’t agree on what these things are and how to identify them. How to tell if something is a religion or a cult or a sect? What is empathy? What makes this society a capitalist one? Disputes of this sort arise again and again in the social sciences.Abend argues that these disagreements have been doubly misconceived. First, they conflate two questions: how a social science community should use its most important words, and what distinctions it should accept and work with. Second, there’s no fact of the matter about either. Instead, they’re practical reason questions for a community, which aim at epistemically and morally good outcomes. Abend calls on social science communities to work together on their words, distinctions, and classifications. They must make collective decisions about the uses of words, the acceptability of distinctions, and the criteria for assessing both. These decisions aren’t up to individual scholars; the community gets the last word. According to Abend, the common good, justice, and equality should play a significant role in the logic of scientific research.Gabriel Abend is professor of sociology at University of Lucerne and the author of The Moral Background: An Inquiry into the History of Business Ethics (Princeton).
Words and Intelligence I: Selected Papers by Yorick Wilks (Text, Speech and Language Technology #35)
by Khurshid Ahmad Christopher Brewster Mark StevensonThis book celebrates the work of Yorick Wilks in the form of a selection of his papers which are intended to reflect the range and depth of his work. The volume accompanies a Festschrift which celebrates his contribution to the fields of Computational Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence. The selected papers reflect Yorick’s contribution to both practical and theoretical aspects of automatic language processing.
Words and Objections: Essays on the Work of W.V. Quine (Synthese Library #21)
by Donald Davidson and Jaakko HintikkaIt is gratifying to see that philosophers' continued interest in Words and Objections has been so strong as to motivate a paperback edition. This is gratifying because it vindicates the editors' belief in the permanent im portance of Quine's philosophy and in the value of the papers com menting on it which were collected in our volume. Apart from a couple of small corrections, only one change has been made. The list of Professor Quine's writings has been brought up to date. The editors cannot claim any credit for this improvement, however. We have not tried to imitate the Library of Living Philosophers volumes and to include Professor Quine's autobiography in this volume, but we are fortunate to publish here his brand-new auto bibliography. 1975 THE EDITORS TABLE OF CONTENTS V PREFACE 1 EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION 1. 1. C. SMAR T / Quine's Philosophy of Science 3 GILBERT HARMAN / An Introduction to 'Translation and Meaning', Chapter Two of Word and Object 14 ERIK STENIUS / Beginning with Ordinary Things 27 NOAM CHOMSKY / Quine's Empirical Assumptions 53 1AAKKO HINTIKKA / Behavioral Criteria of Radical Translation 69 BARRY STROUD / Conventionalism and the Indeterminacy of Translation 82 P. F. STRA WSON / Singular Terms and Predication 97 118 H. P. GRICE / Vacuous Names P. T.
Words, Music, and the Popular: Global Perspectives on Intermedial Relations (Palgrave Studies in Music and Literature)
by Susan Winnett Thomas GurkeWords, Music, and the Popular: Global Perspectives on Intermedial Relations opens up the notion of the popular, drawing useful links between wide-ranging aspects of popular culture, through the lens of the interaction between words and music. This collection of essays explores the relation of words and music to issues of the popular. It asks: What is popularity or ‘the’ popular and what role(s) does music play in it? What is the function of the popular, and is ‘pop’ a system? How can popularity be explained in certain historical and political contexts? How do class, gender, race, and ethnicity contribute to and complicate an understanding of the ‘popular’? What of the popularity of verbal art forms? How do they interact with music at particular times and throughout different media?
Words, Objects and Events in Economics: The Making of Economic Theory (Virtues and Economics #6)
by Peter Róna László Zsolnai Agnieszka Wincewicz-PriceThis open access book examines from a variety of perspectives the disappearance of moral content and ethical judgment from the models employed in the formulation of modern economic theory, and some of the papers contain important proposals about how moral judgment could be reintroduced in economic theory. The chapters collected in this volume result from the favorable reception of the first volume of the Virtues in Economics series and represent further contributions to the themes set out in that volume: (i) examining the philosophical and methodological fallacies of this turn in modern economic theory that the removal of the moral motivation of economic agents from modern economic theory has entailed; and (ii) proposing a return descriptive economics as the means with which the moral content of economic life could be restored in economic theory.This book is of interest to researchers and students of the methodology of economics, ethics, philosophers concerned with agency and economists who build economic models that rest in the intention of the agent.
Words of Wisdom: Philosophy's Most Important Quotations and Their Meaning
by Gareth SouthwellWords of Wisdom brings together 360 of Philosophy's most famous quotations, explaining their meaning and telling the stories behind them. Western philosophy may be said to have begun in ancient Greece, where, inscribed in his temple at Delphi, the words of the god Apollo commanded those who sought wisdom to first 'know thyself'. With the author's usual humour and clarity of style, the whole 2,500 year history of philosophy is laid bare. Each quote is set in the context of its cultural background, author biography and general outlook; trends are highlighted, links established, and influences traced, all in a way that is entertaining, thought-provoking, and even fun. Words of Wisdom is the perfect book for those who always wanted to ask what philosophy was about, but were afraid they might not understand the answer.
Words, Space, and the Audience: The Theatrical Tension between Empiricism and Rationalism
by M. BennettIn this unique study, Michael Y. Bennett re-reads four influential modern plays alongside their contemporary debates between rationalism and empiricism to show how these monumental achievements were thoroughly a product of their time, but also universal in their epistemological quest to understand the world through a rational and/or empirical model. Bennett contends that these plays directly engage in their contemporary epistemological debates rather than through the lens of a specific philosophy. Besides producing new, insightful readings of heavily-studied plays, the interdisciplinary (historical, philosophical, dramatic, theatrical, and literary) frame Bennett constructs allows him to investigate one of the most fundamental questions of the theatre - how does meaning get made? Bennett suggests that the key to unlocking theatrical meaning is exploring the tension between empirical and rational modes of understanding. The book concludes with an interview with performance artist Coco Fusco.
Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary
by Thomas Szasz"The human mind abhors the absence of explanation, but full understanding is never possible. Human understanding is likely to be incomplete at best and, more often, utterly fallacious. To make matters worse, it is likely to be supported as truth and wisdom by religious and scientific authority, intellectual fashion and social convention. In Words to the Wise, Thomas Szasz offers a compendium of thoughts, observations, and aphorisms that address our understanding of a broad range of subjects, from birth to death.In this book, Szasz tackles a problem intrinsic to the human condition. What problem? In the words of the American humorist Josh Billings: ""The trouble with people is not what they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so."" Many of Thomas Szasz's books have been devoted to exposing what ""ain't so"" about mental illness and psychiatry. Here, Szasz applies the same skeptical spirit to the larger problem of people knowing much that ""ain't so."" About addiction, Szasz observes: ""If a person ingests a drug prohibited by legislators and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves he is an addict; if he ingests a drug prescribed by a psychiatrist and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves that mental illness is a biomedical disease."" About beauty: ""Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; ugliness is in the personality of the beholden."" About libertarians: ""Libertarians regard liberty as contingent on the right to property; scientists regard disease as contingent on pathological alteration of the body. All libertarians reject the notion of 'socialist liberty,' yet many accept the notion of 'mental disease.'"" Or about power: ""Many of my critics say I am hostile to medicine and physicians. They are wrong. I am hostile only to the power of the medical profession and of physicians.""Szasz notes that despite enormous social pressure for a shared perspective on how the world works and how we ought to live, every person'saunde"
Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary
by Thomas Szasz"The human mind abhors the absence of explanation, but full understanding is never possible. Human understanding is likely to be incomplete at best and, more often, utterly fallacious. To make matters worse, it is likely to be supported as truth and wisdom by religious and scientific authority, intellectual fashion and social convention. In Words to the Wise, Thomas Szasz offers a compendium of thoughts, observations, and aphorisms that address our understanding of a broad range of subjects, from birth to death.In this book, Szasz tackles a problem intrinsic to the human condition. What problem? In the words of the American humorist Josh Billings: ""The trouble with people is not what they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so."" Many of Thomas Szasz's books have been devoted to exposing what ""ain't so"" about mental illness and psychiatry. Here, Szasz applies the same skeptical spirit to the larger problem of people knowing much that ""ain't so."" About addiction, Szasz observes: ""If a person ingests a drug prohibited by legislators and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves he is an addict; if he ingests a drug prescribed by a psychiatrist and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves that mental illness is a biomedical disease."" About beauty: ""Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; ugliness is in the personality of the beholden."" About libertarians: ""Libertarians regard liberty as contingent on the right to property; scientists regard disease as contingent on pathological alteration of the body. All libertarians reject the notion of 'socialist liberty,' yet many accept the notion of 'mental disease.'"" Or about power: ""Many of my critics say I am hostile to medicine and physicians. They are wrong. I am hostile only to the power of the medical profession and of physicians.""Szasz notes that despite enormous social pressure for a shared perspective on how the world works and how we ought to live, every person'saunde"
Wordsworth's Ethics
by Adam PotkayWhy read Wordsworth’s poetry—indeed, why read poetry at all? Beyond any pleasure it might give, can it make one a better or more flourishing person? These questions were never far from William Wordsworth’s thoughts. He responded in rich and varied ways, in verse and in prose, in both well-known and more obscure writings.Wordsworth's Ethics is a comprehensive examination of the Romantic poet’s work, delving into his desire to understand the source and scope of our ethical obligations. Adam Potkay finds that Wordsworth consistently rejects the kind of impersonal utilitarianism that was espoused by his contemporaries James Mill and Jeremy Bentham in favor of a view of ethics founded in relationships with particular persons and things. The discussion proceeds chronologically through Wordsworth’s career as a writer—from his juvenilia through his poems of the 1830s and '40s—providing a valuable introduction to the poet’s work. The book will appeal to readers interested in the vital connection between literature and moral philosophy.
Wordsworth's Ethics
by Adam PotkayWhy read Wordsworth’s poetry—indeed, why read poetry at all? Beyond any pleasure it might give, can it make one a better or more flourishing person? These questions were never far from William Wordsworth’s thoughts. He responded in rich and varied ways, in verse and in prose, in both well-known and more obscure writings.Wordsworth's Ethics is a comprehensive examination of the Romantic poet’s work, delving into his desire to understand the source and scope of our ethical obligations. Adam Potkay finds that Wordsworth consistently rejects the kind of impersonal utilitarianism that was espoused by his contemporaries James Mill and Jeremy Bentham in favor of a view of ethics founded in relationships with particular persons and things. The discussion proceeds chronologically through Wordsworth’s career as a writer—from his juvenilia through his poems of the 1830s and '40s—providing a valuable introduction to the poet’s work. The book will appeal to readers interested in the vital connection between literature and moral philosophy.
Work: Re-thinking the Question of Work (Routledge Revivals)
by Jan Holmer Jan Ch KarlssonFirst published in 1997, this volume is the result of the third Karlstad symposium which aimed to bring together and reflect current empirical trends and theoretical discussions on the questions: what exactly is happening to work and, consequentially, what should happen to work? This book disseminates contributions from seventeen scientists from eleven countries to a wider audience. It should prove stimulating to postgraduates, researchers, policy-makers and others to encourage further work on conditions both at work and on the labour market.
Work: Re-thinking the Question of Work (Routledge Revivals)
by Jan Holmer Jan Ch. KarlssonFirst published in 1997, this volume is the result of the third Karlstad symposium which aimed to bring together and reflect current empirical trends and theoretical discussions on the questions: what exactly is happening to work and, consequentially, what should happen to work? This book disseminates contributions from seventeen scientists from eleven countries to a wider audience. It should prove stimulating to postgraduates, researchers, policy-makers and others to encourage further work on conditions both at work and on the labour market.
Work
by Lars Fredrik Svendsen"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell Work is one of the most universal features of human life; virtually everybody spends some part of their life at work. It is often associated with tedium and boredom, in conflict with the things we would otherwise love to do. The idea of work primarily as a burden was also shared by the philosophers in ancient Greece, who generally regarded work as a curse. And yet research shows that it prolongs life and is generally good for people’s physical and mental health. Why is this? What is the meaning of work? To what extent does it determine our social identity? Should we expect to find work fulfilling? In this book, Lars Svendsen explores these questions and more. He argues that we need to complete this reorientation of our feelings about work and collapse the differences between leisure and work. Work is always with us. But to overcome the sense of being burnt out, we must think of work as not only productive but recreative – in other words, a lot more like leisure. Revised and updated in light of the global financial crisis, this second edition also includes a new chapter on work and globalization.
Work
by Lars Fredrik Svendsen"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell Work is one of the most universal features of human life; virtually everybody spends some part of their life at work. It is often associated with tedium and boredom, in conflict with the things we would otherwise love to do. The idea of work primarily as a burden was also shared by the philosophers in ancient Greece, who generally regarded work as a curse. And yet research shows that it prolongs life and is generally good for people’s physical and mental health. Why is this? What is the meaning of work? To what extent does it determine our social identity? Should we expect to find work fulfilling? In this book, Lars Svendsen explores these questions and more. He argues that we need to complete this reorientation of our feelings about work and collapse the differences between leisure and work. Work is always with us. But to overcome the sense of being burnt out, we must think of work as not only productive but recreative – in other words, a lot more like leisure. Revised and updated in light of the global financial crisis, this second edition also includes a new chapter on work and globalization.
Work-Based Learning (UK Higher Education OUP Humanities & Social Sciences Higher Education OUP)
by David Boud Nicky SolomonWork-Based Learning
Work-Family Enrichment: A Research Of Positive Transfer
by Charles P. Chen J. SheinThis book aims to promote individuals’ personal and vocational wellbeing through an increased awareness on the invaluable nature of the positive role interaction between work and family contexts. Built upon rich theoretical and empirical evidence in the existing literature, the book presents a research study focusing on the construct of work-family enrichment, one of several constructs representing the positive interdependencies of work and family roles. It illustrates vividly how the psychological process of enrichment takes place, demonstrating movements and correlations between various variables and dynamics in the process. Through a critical eye, findings of the current research contribute to greater understanding of the positive linkages between work and family role participation. The book concludes with a synopsis of the newly expanded, innovative, and comprehensive framework of worklife and family life enrichment, highlighting the implications for theory, research, and practice. Researchers, scholars, and practitioners in various walks of social sciences can benefit form this book, especially those who work in areas of vocational and career psychology, organizational and industrial psychology, health psychology, counselling psychology, human resource management and development, and other related fields. Nevertheless, readers do not have to be experts in these human services realms only. Lay workers across professions can enjoy the insights and intelligence from this book for their own work-family wellbeing.
Work Incentives and Welfare Provision: The 'Pathological' Theory of Unemployment (Routledge Revivals)
by Doris SchroederThis title was first published in 2000: Over the past decade the welfare state has come under sustained attack not only from quarters which never approved of its policies, but also from political theorists who used to support it. With the collapse of communism, the policy of comprehensive welfare provision came under renewed scrutiny. It was argued that its impact on work incentives is most detrimental. Examining in detail current unemployment debates within Western welfare states, this book seeks to verify or refute the view that non-work is increasingly chosen by work shy individuals - the 'pathological' theory of unemployment. Drawing from a range of disciplinary perspectives - from social philosophy and the history of philosophy, to occupational psychology and feminist economics - this interdisciplinary analysis reveals that the "pathological" theory of unemployment, with its reliance on a deficient depiction of human nature and its disregard of non-pecuniary work incentives and empirical evidence on benefit fraud, cannot be upheld. Schroeder presents an alternative explanation for the phenomenon of widespread Western unemployment through new insights into an 'external barrier' theory of unemployment, namely technological displacement combined with a refusal to return to a two-tiered Victorian society. By effectively combining empirical data with philosophical deliberations, the book provides an important contribution to the welfare state debate.
Work Incentives and Welfare Provision: The 'Pathological' Theory of Unemployment (Routledge Revivals)
by Doris SchroederThis title was first published in 2000: Over the past decade the welfare state has come under sustained attack not only from quarters which never approved of its policies, but also from political theorists who used to support it. With the collapse of communism, the policy of comprehensive welfare provision came under renewed scrutiny. It was argued that its impact on work incentives is most detrimental. Examining in detail current unemployment debates within Western welfare states, this book seeks to verify or refute the view that non-work is increasingly chosen by work shy individuals - the 'pathological' theory of unemployment. Drawing from a range of disciplinary perspectives - from social philosophy and the history of philosophy, to occupational psychology and feminist economics - this interdisciplinary analysis reveals that the "pathological" theory of unemployment, with its reliance on a deficient depiction of human nature and its disregard of non-pecuniary work incentives and empirical evidence on benefit fraud, cannot be upheld. Schroeder presents an alternative explanation for the phenomenon of widespread Western unemployment through new insights into an 'external barrier' theory of unemployment, namely technological displacement combined with a refusal to return to a two-tiered Victorian society. By effectively combining empirical data with philosophical deliberations, the book provides an important contribution to the welfare state debate.
Work, Inheritance, and Deserts in Joseph Conrad’s Fiction
by Evelyn Tsz ChanThis book focuses on the complex relationships between inheritance, work, and desert in literature. It shows how, from its manifestation in the trope of material inheritance and legacy in Victorian fiction, “inheritance” gradually took on additional, more modern meanings in Joseph Conrad’s fiction on work and self-making. In effect, the emphasis on inheritance as referring to social rank and wealth acquired through birth shifted to a focus on talent, ability, and merit, often expressed through work.The book explores how Conrad’s fiction engaged with these changing modes of inheritance and work, and the resulting claims of desert they led to. Uniquely, it argues that Conrad’s fiction critiques claims of desert arising from both work and inheritance, while also vividly portraying the emotional costs and existential angst that these beliefs in desert entailed. The argument speaks to and illuminates today’s debates on moral desert arising from work and inheritance, in particular from meritocratic ideals. Its new approach to Conrad’s works will appeal to students and scholars of Conrad and literary modernism, as well as a wider audience interested in philosophical and social debates on desert deriving from inheritance and work.
Work, Learning and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges (Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects #8)
by John Fien Rupert Maclean Man-Gon ParkThis book is the first that provides a comprehensive overview of the way countries, education systems and institutions have responded to the call for an integration of learning for work, citizenship and sustainability at the Second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education which was held in Seoul in 1999. Discussions on the central theme of the Seoul Conference - lifelong learning and training for all, a bridge to the future – led to the conclusion that a new paradigm of both development and Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) was needed. This book showcases the wide range of international initiatives that have sought to put such exhortations into practice. It includes: case studies of national TVET policy reforms, reoriented curricula, sustainable campus management programs, and examples of innovative approaches to integrating learning in TVET with on-the-job training and in community service. It also focuses on the issues and challenges being faced and ways of moving forward. Case studies feature initiatives in a wide range of world regions and countries, and include authors from: UK, Germany, Finland, Canada, USA, Australia, South Africa, China, Republic of Korea, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.